Thursday 26 January 2017

Rich Interconnections

The continuity of Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization is endlessly impressive. The previous two posts, here and here, have referred to:

Ythrians
van Rijn
the Polesotechnic League
Mirkheim
Avalon
the Terran Empire
(David) Falkayn
Dominic Flandry

- but have not mentioned many of the rich interconnections between these people, peoples and planets:

van Rijn employed Falkayn to lead his first trade pioneer crew;

Ythrians transported van Rijn to Mirkheim;

Falkayn had discovered Mirkheim, a natural source of supermetals, and founded the Supermetals Company, thus breaking his oath of fealty to van Rijn;

nevertheless, Falkayn married van Rijn's granddaughter and became acting CEO of van Rijn's company while the latter tried to patch together the Polesotechnic League;

Falkayn also founded the human-Ythrian colony on Avalon;

his descendant, Tabitha Falkayn, was part of the successful Avalonian resistance to annexation by the Terran Empire;

later, Dominic Flandry prolonged the life of the Terran Empire and expected planets like Avalon to build new civilizations.

Thus, everything, however apparently disconnected, fits together.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And Old Nick was grieved at how his protege David Falkayn had broken his oath of fealty. And that bothered Falkayn as well! But we do know Old Nick forgave Falkayn and the latter tried to make amends for breaking fealty.

Sean